"…then there was the year we homeschooled the kids!"

Is Homeschool “Real” School?

﻿﻿﻿If I hear one more person remark that homeschool isn’t “real” school, then I might just put them in a chokehold while my children school them on just how real it is. Compared to last year, my homeschooler has learned more in the first three months of homeschooling than she probably would have learned all year if I had left her in said “real” school. Let us see now:

Books we have read thus far for literature (this does not include the numerous free-read books we have read, or Jane has chosen to read on her own): Little House in the Big Woods, The Secret Garden, Aesop’s Fables, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, books from the Nancy Drew series, The Jungle Book, and Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Projects we have completed in history: Building a nomad hut from sticks and leaves collected from the back yard, building a pyramid out of homemade sand cubes and sugar cubes, cave painting, and an archaeology dig at a local park. They can also tell you facts and details about the particular topics we have covered, not with blank bored stares, but with great excitement and interest.

Let’s also note that we have studied Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and are now beginning Vivaldi. The girls can tell you details about these composers such as where they came from, little facts about them as children, and facts about them as adults, including key trials and triumphs they faced throughout their life. They have also studied the impressionist (I admit that art isn’t our strong point this year). With science they have been studying about nutrition and how their bodies work.

Also, Annie started the year not knowing much of her alphabet, but now can easily identify about 22 of them. She is also my little math wiz. Numbers come easily for her as she sits and understands how to add and subtract numbers even well before being able to write most of them correctly.

The girls also get an ample amount of time for creative play. Jane says she loves homeschooling because she gets to “explore nature” and often in the company of friends – a number which grows more and more as we move through our year. She doesn’t have to rely on a select number of kids in her class or school; she gets out into her community to socialize with the rest of the world. She comes into contact and easily communicates with children younger than her, older children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. They communicate with so many people throughout their week including librarians, store clerks, their teachers at the YMCA, volunteers and employees at the art museum, and this list could seriously go on much longer than I have time and space.

Also, the girls overall, just feel good about life and the world around them. The community is their classroom. I can’t even begin to express the gratitude I have in this experience for the positive changes I have seen in Jane alone. She is more confident, displays more self-control, has more respect for others, is more well-rested, and is more responsible. Above all, she is so HAPPY – and it’s a real, great-big, knock-the-parents-socks-off kind of happy. She feels good about who she is, what she knows, what she doesn’t know, what she wants to know, and how to obtain information to satisfy her curiosities. She has GREAT friends who are all similar to her in that they, too, are happy and confident children who have learned that respecting others isn’t just a rule, it’s a virtue to live by. They don’t have to conform to a particular group, type of music, lifestyle, attitude, or attire. They just figure out who they are, learn to love that naturally, and march to the beat of their own drum with real confidence.

So, yes, homeschooling is real. I have also come to understand that those who don’t feel it is real also say such things out of ignorance. They fall victim to not really knowing how to research something they don’t understand. They are okay with just assuming they know. It’s okay, I understand, and I am also glad that even at the ages of 4 and 6 years old, my children can do better than that when they question an idea they don’t understand. That is because they are LEARNING HOW TO LEARN!!! Imagine that! Not someone teaching you how you should learn – or how Susie or Joe learns, or how the school system feels you should learn, or learning at a pace that is the average of the rest of the 18+ kids in the classroom – but figuring out for yourself how you learn and using that as a tool to obtain knowledge. Also, this gathering of knowledge doesn’t just fill their day with mundane tasks, but it enriches their life in an exciting way in a style that is tailored to their very personality – taking their strengths and weaknesses into consideration.

On a final note: If perhaps you don’t understand homeschooling, that is okay. If homeschooling isn’t for you, that is okay. However, I do understand homeschooling, homeschooling is right for our family, and homeschooling works for us. Do I feel public or private school is bad? No. If that works for you, great! However, you must also understand that the world is bigger than your local school district, it is bigger than your local pool of private schools, and the number of different personalities in the world is so big that we couldn’t possibly wrap our brains around it; however, it is necessary to understand that when wondering why someone might choose to take a path you are not comfortable with. It’s called tolerance. It comes in all shapes, forms, and fashions (jumpers not having to be one of them…haha). Yes, we homeschool, deal with it, and it is impossible for me not to quote the Beatles when I say, “Let it be!” If you can do that, then I won’t have to put you in that chokehold. 😉

Here is a cool video you might enjoy. It was done by a homeschooled kid at Laurel Springs Academy for a contest titled “Homeschool is Cool”.

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2 Responses

I’m just so impressed with all of the things you and your girls find yourselves into. I would love to manage it all, but I find that I don’t have the patience nor the motivation to achieve it. Good for you for finding both.